psych 3 Flashcards
Pluralistic ignorance
When people mistakenly think their own thoughts and feelings are different from those of others in a group, leading them to go along with what they incorrectly believe is the group norm.
Latané and Darley, in 1968
Objective: Studied how people react in emergencies when others are around.
Finding: Alone, 75% acted within three minutes; with three people, 35% acted; if two ignored the smoke, only 10% acted.
Steblay (1987)
People in rural areas are more likely to help.
Especially true in small towns.
Bryan & Test (1967)
you’re driving and see a driver helping someone, more likely to help further down the road if you have witnessed helping behaviour
Piliavin & Piliavin (1972)
Situation
Victim (confederate) staggers across crowded subway car, collapses, and stares at the ceiling without speaking.
Experimental Conditions:
Bleeding Victim: Victim has fake blood trickling from chin.
Non-Bleeding Victim: Victim appears without any bleeding.
Results:
The bleeding victim was less likely to receive help compared to the non-bleeding victim.
Many people are hesitant to help when they see blood due to concerns about getting it on their clothes or coming into contact with a stranger’s blood.
McDonald & McKelvie, 1992
At mall, male confederate either dropped a mitten or a box of condoms
% who helped (of those who saw the man drop the item):
Mitten: 47%
Condoms: 17%
Good mood effect:
tendency to be more helpful when we’re happy
Baron (1997)
Participants passing in a mall
Passed by either a pleasant smell or a neutral smell
Subjects were asked for change of a dollar
People who went by a pleasant smell 55%
Neutral smell almost 20% (dont remember these %)
Baron asked their moods, and found that indeed the pleasant smell people were in a better mood than the neutral smell
feel bad - do good hypothesis
refers to the tendency for individuals experiencing negative emotions to engage in helpful or altruistic behaviors as a way to alleviate their own distress.
McMillen and Austin (1971)
Test the “feel bad - do good” hypothesis.
Control Condition: Few participants stayed to help. (2min)
Induced Lie Condition: Participants feeling guilty about cheating stayed to help the experimenter for over an hour on average. (63min)
Just World Theory (Lerner, 1980)
Just World Theory suggests that people believe the world is fair, so they think that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people.
Ingroup Favourtisim
Preference to help those who are perceived as part of one’s own group
Number-Induced Apathy
people feel less emotional impact and are less likely to take action when confronted with large numbers of people in need, compared to a single identifiable individual.
Small & Loewenstein (2005)
checking the impact of identifiable victims vs statistical data
Findings:
Participants donated twice as much when presented with a specific individual’s story (Rokia) compared to statistics about a large-scale problem.
Compassion collapse
the ability to feel compassion decreases as the number of victims increases.
